They’ve got Spirit!
Posted Apr 16, 2023 12:58 PM
Mom starts a local volleyball club that has grown to hundreds of members.
By Chris Faulkner
Lisa Knapp got tired of spending a lot of time and money driving her daughter Madalynn back and forth to Iowa City for club volleyball.
But she still wanted her daughter to develop her skills to a higher level.
So Knapp started her own club, Spirit Volleyball, and serves as the club director.
The 2020-21 season had just seven teams of different age groups involved, and that expanded to 12 the next year, and the recent club season ended with 16 teams, comprising more than 150 girls and representing more than 26 different school districts across southeast Iowa and western Illinois.
Madalynn is now a sophomore at Burlington Notre Dame.
“We would go to practice two to three times a week,” Lisa Knapp said.
“The drive started to get tiresome.”
She looked at many of the schools in the area, including those in the South Division of the Southeast Iowa Superconference — Notre Dame, Mediapolis, New London, and Holy Trinity Catholic are perennial powers.
“There’s a lot of talent in southeast Iowa, so why not start up a club in the area that could benefit all kids?” Knapp said.
Most schools in the area have their own club teams, which are usually open to students of other schools if they want to attend.
Spirit Volleyball is similar to the larger city clubs — HTC all-stater and Nebraska All-American Mikaela Foecke came through the Iowa Rockets — in that tryouts are held in October to fill the eight to 10 spots on each team.
“We compete at a higher level,” Knapp said.
As such, the coaching staff was carefully chosen from the beginning.
“In Year 1, it was a bunch of volunteers that are fluent in the volleyball community that wanted to get this started.
“We made sure that all of our coaches that we brought on were knowledgeable about the sport.”
The season goes through late March or early April.
The age groups of the teams range from 10U through 18U and the youngest player currently is 8.
“Many of our girls have gotten recruited at the college level because they came to play at our club,” Knapp said.
She said all of the age groups have won several tournaments.
Spirit Volleyball isn’t just beneficial to the athletes who take part.
“Spirit Volleyball Club hosted seven tournaments this past year,” Knapp said, “with two at Southeastern Community College and five at Notre Dame High School.”
“We brought in teams three or four hours away that helped bring in business to Burlington,” Knapp said.
The original purpose of the club was to reduce the drive time for area parents. But, it’s become so successful.
“We have kids that drive an hour and a half that come to our club,” Knapp said.
“They did not want to play for their school club teams. They’ve been very happy.”
Spirit Volleyball couldn’t handle more than 16 teams as they were limited to gym space and time.
“Next year we have partnered with Fun City Courts so we can add more teams,” Knapp said of the new facility being built at the Fun City center.
“In addition to the normal practices for the girls, we do offer specialty practices where we have hired college coaches to come in once a week to work with setters only or outside hitters only,” Knapp said.
Knapp wanted to give special recognition to her husband, Nathan, “as he helps a lot on the back end with financials and paperwork with the club.”
Brandon Bentz serves as co-director and does a lot of behind-the-scenes work for the club as well, Knapp said.
“Spirit Volleyball Club has been an avenue for kids in the area to play at a competitive level without having to travel — to gain knowledge of the sport,” Knapp said, “and most importantly have fun.”